Code Red
by Tigerboy101
Summary: Set in 2044- A high tech military team known only as Code Red, fights battles against a war torn North Korea, while dealing with other threats in their way. Join Code Red, as they continue their conquest against the Koreans, and attempt to liberate the country, while dealing with a more shocking, much bigger plot. A story of teamwork, friendship, thrilling action, and betrayal.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first solid attempt at a real story. I have worked very hard on the idea for this, and even though I have many projects for stories at this time, I had to publish this one today. I hope you all enjoy, and take the time to read the chapters. You can expect this to be a fairly long story, with fairly long chapters. But nevertheless, I hope you enjoy the story! **

**Warning: This story is recommended for readers that are at least 13 or older. Rated T for Mildly descriptive war violence, and later brutal tragedy to come late in the story. (But I do not use harsh language or mature/sexual themes, as they are things that I do not write) If don't like, then don't read. That is how I write.**

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><p>Same stuff every day. That's what the old man always told us. Yet here we were, sitting in the middle of an urban hostile inhabited area, with rain pounding down on us in pitch black darkness. Sounds like fun right? Trust me, it's not. But I'm used to it, being the very first team to be deployed, how could I not already?<p>

The name's Sam Michaels, and I'm apart of the first deployment distress team: Code Red. Uncle Sam and the good old boys at Headquarters send us to complete situations/assignments that normal U.S soldiers or even Elites are not able to deal with themselves. In short, they send us to do crap that the regular guys at home base can't deal with on their own. That's where Code Red comes in, to clean up after them.

At about 04:00:00, (A.K.A, 4:00 AM) our team was alerted to a Korean occupation threat in South Korea. This wasn't really a surprise, considering that we are technically at war with the North. They had recently started what the president is calling, "Part two of the Korean war." North Korea had made an unannounced attack attempt on the South's capital, Seoul, which lead to an automatic declaration of war between them. And being the good allies we were, the president decided to come to South Korea's aid. But our clashes with North Korea's military didn't end the best, and our country was meant with countless defeats, almost every time we attempted to fortify South Korea's defenses. All of these events eventually led to their secret weapon being used: Team Code Red. Which is us of course.

Now here I was, in the middle of a downpour, in a hostile environment, with the toughest guy on our team, who just so happened to be a sniper. We both sat deadly still on our stomachs on the edge of the office building, watching, waiting for the convoy to arrive.

"Hey Cage, you got anything yet?" I whispered.

Cage's helmet visor gave my direction a brief glance. "What do you think genius?" He replied deeply. His sniper barrel was stretched slightly off the edge of the building, just enough so that he didn't draw any attention to our position. We were covered by a thin, green tarp that went with the building color. The tarp was meant to cover a generator, but no one could see exactly what was under it, even with night vision, which most of the Korean Elite had equipped, so we had free eyes over the entire area. Luckily, there were no Elite at the moment, so we could practically dance on the building if we wanted to, without being seen. But with Elite, you never know where they could be at any time… the last thing any of us need is an Elite on our trail while doing our missions.

Suddenly, my earcom beeped twice into my ear, signaling that I was getting a call.

"Hey Michaels, you their?"

"Yeah D'chan, what do we got?" I replied causally.

"We are ready to go when you are. The commander just informed us that the convoy is five minutes away from arrival to our position, so we need you to deal with the lookouts overlooking the pipeline, quietly," he added swiftly.

I nodded in response. "Alright, I'll see what we can do. Get ready to move on my mark, okay?"

"Ready when you are my friend," D'chan replied simply, before becoming silent.

I checked the urban area below us. On the building bordering the team's side of the pipeline, I could see two regular Korean soldiers, armed with nothing more than AK-47s. They took turns patrolling back and forth across the roof of the building, changing directions occasionally when they reached the metal railing. And just south of my direction, I could see two snipers on the opposite building scanning our direction occasionally with their scooped rifles, before walking away to the other end. Honestly, it looked simply enough to deal with.

"What'd they say?" Cage asked with a small nudge to my armored shoulder.

I pointed out the guards with my two front fingers. "They want us to deal with them. Quietly," I added sternly when I noticed Cage's finger touch the trigger of his sniper hastily.

"Alright then, tell me who to pop first," Cage replied eagerly, as he attached the silencer to his weapon.

The minute I saw when of the snipers make a turn behind a cement wall, I knew it was the right time. "The Sniper, behind the cement wall, just 6:00 from our position," I decided. "See him?"

Cage nodded swiftly, before zooming in on the snipers position. His partner, was just starting to walk away from him, right as the sniper had walked out of his view. "Now!" I whispered loudly. A silent pop sounded from Cage's sniper, followed by the cocking back of his trigger. The bullet had hit the sniper so hard, that the bullet had pierced his head, and hit the wall behind him, as his deceased corpse flopped onto the rock-hard roof. After a quick, but unnecessary examination of his corpse with my bio cam, I knew right away he was gone. "Target down," I reported. "Now for the second one, you ready, Cage?" I asked. Cage nodded determinedly, as he loaded another bullet into his nearly full magazine. "Ready when you are buddy."

"Take him!" I almost shouted.

Another bullet whizzed through the air, dropping the second sniper a split second later. "Target eliminated," I said once again.

"I can take the last two just fine," Cage arrogantly said, as he readied his Barret again. I knew there was no use arguing with him, so I let him be.

The regular Korean soldiers walked towards each other, shoulders and weapons swaying. Just as fast as I had seen them both up and about, they were both on the ground in two shoots later just as fast. One tried to stupidly get up from the ground, but Cage finished him with a crippling blow to the head, sending a spray of blood onto the wall behind him.

Even though Cage had his bulky helmet on, I could tell that he had a look of satisfaction on his face, as if he had just won the lottery. It was no surprise really. But as much as I like having Cage as a sniper and a part of our time, he did act messed up at times, enjoying the sight of someone getting their head popped.

"Ha, ha, gotcha," he whispered to himself, as he reloaded his sniper again.

It looked clear of activity, so I decided that we were good to go.

"Alright guys, it's your go, move into position, but do it fast!" I said aloud.

A moment later, I saw a door open slowly at one of the buildings, where three figures in bulky armor emerged from it. After the commander had gave a thumbs up to my position that it was him, the rest of the team continued across the pipeline. But just as I thought we were doing okay, the door of the opposite building on the roof opened, to reveal an armed Korean soldier walking out onto the roof. "Scratch that order! Go back, go back guys!" I tried to whisper loudly.

But it was too late. The Korean soldier had already noticed them, as was just about to ready his weapon on them. Right when the soldier's hand had reached his walkie, another figure in blue bulky armor appeared behind him. It took me a moment to realize that the figure wasn't one of the Korean's, but D'chan. D'chan grabbed the soldier from behind and quickly dispatched him with a combat knife, covering his mouth to keep him from making noise.

"It's alright Americans, I got this one," he said with a chuckle.

D'chan dragged the corpse back inside, before slowly closing the door behind him. I sighed with relief and facepalmed myself with dismay.

"D'chan you idiot! Are you trying to get yourself killed?" I said loudly, partially angry and annoyed at the same time.

He did always have a knack for being the hero at times, and taking the easy way to an objective, but it sure got annoying after a while.

"You're welcome," he replied bluntly, clearly amused. The four armored soldiers regrouped on the pipeline below, where they casually lowered their weapons.

My earcam eventually beeped on, and I knew right away it was the old man this time.

"Alright ladies! Take your positions! The convoy is passing by this position in no less than a minute, so hurry up! Cage, Michaels, get ready to zip line down here when you are needed, but provide sniper support for now," he ordered.

The figure in bright red armor sat up from the pipeline, rolled his arm around his head, signaling for the team to spread out. D'chan jogged under the broken metal balcony that hung over the pipeline and took cover behind the wall. He disappeared from sight a moment later, but by the slight glimmer I could see at his position, I knew he was in cloak mode.

You see, one of the nice things about being in these armored suits that we are in at the moment, is that we get many high tech abilities added to them, like cloak mode. It basically made you disappear from sight, but it isn't as effective in a downpour like this, as it is when there is no precipitation. Of course, you had to be careful how often you used the abilities, and how much you get used to the suit. Those were the first things that the old man had warned us about, working in these beautiful suits and all. Because the way I heard it, what would happen if you were caught in a firefight with no bullet proof suit to save you? You would have to remember how to adapt, without the armor.

Meanwhile, The old man, (Yes, he was the guy in the bright red armor) and Kaplan hid along the cement wall on the roof. They readied their weapons and changed to cloak mode of course, just for precautions. I couldn't see our heavy gunner Rico at the moment, but I had a pretty good feeling that he was camping out in cloak mode somewhere, right in front of my eyes. I itched to get up and do something, but I knew just as well as the rest of the team did that I had to stay and help spot for Cage.

"20 seconds to arrival boys!" I heard the commander's voice on the com.

A few tense seconds past, and I could already hear the sound of truck motors on the coms approaching the team's position. The rumbling of the trucks was getting to the point where I could almost hear the engine itself, and I knew right away there was more than two of them. After a few more seconds, the headlights shined through the following raindrops, followed by the edge of the Truck's front. Cage's finger tensed on the trigger of his trusty sniper, but I put a hand on his shoulder and shook my head in protest.

"Wait for my mark men," I heard. "We need to know what we are dealing with here."

The trucks rumbled and bounced clumsily toward us, splashing over muddy piles of water. As the first one passed by, it was soon followed by another, then another, but luckily, there were only three trucks, just as I predicted. A few soldiers walked casually alongside the slow moving trucks, with their usual AK-47s or RPDs. I could see a few that had RPGs sticking out of their packs, and even a spare sniper. A few motorcycles cruised alongside the convoy as well, with light machine gunners and snipers riding in the back of them. And as the trucks came closer, I noticed the black and grey tarps covering the backside of them. That, and including the length of the trucks, I could tell that they were meant to carry entire squads, which probably meant that we would be facing and entire army at this point. But I didn't mind. Compared to us they were nothing more than a few annoyed hornets.

"Wait for them to cross the pipeline men….. their almost there," I heard on the com.

Seconds of tension passed, as Cage readied his finger on the trigger. The trucks were just inches away from the pipeline, when the com suddenly screeched static. "NOW!"

At that exact moment, a crack from Cage's sniper broke the silence. The bullet broke the windshield on the vehicle in the front, killing the driver and halting it to a stop. The rest of the team including the commander came out from cloak mode and almost instantly started unloading on the Korean troops struggling to get out of the back of the truck. It took a moment for others to realize what was happening, before the other Korean troops could make it out of their vehicles. Cage turned his sights on one Korean troop, bringing him to the ground, before doing the same to another. His shoulder recoiled furiously on every shot, and I knew very well that he didn't care at this point. The old man leaped from his cement wall and joined the assault from above along the pipeline, while D'chan gave covering fire from the building's roof. Suddenly, a soldier hiding behind the truck shot an RPG round toward the pipeline, where the commander barley dodged the fiery blast. He leaped right onto the remainder of the balcony, as the pipe snapped off the other side and fell onto the concrete ground. At that exact moment, one of the other squad trucks sped forward, it's wheels spitting up mud as it tore past the downed truck in front. The motorcycles that had been covering the convoy stayed at its side, putting heavy fire on D'chan and the rest of the team. D'chan crouched under the cement wall as heavy machine gun bullets smashed into it. He fasted walked swiftly under it and rolled out into the open, finishing off the gunner of a motorcycle, sending the vehicle sliding onto the street. I immediately gave Cage's shoulder a hard and rough nudge. "Take the truck driver, take the driver!" I shouted.

"I know!" He shouted back at me, still trying to zoom in on the fleeing truck drivers position.

However, right when he had taken the shot, it harmlessly hit the tarp covering it, right as the truck turned behind a building. Cage lowered the sniper from his chest and stomped the ground in frustration. "Dang it!" He growled through his helmet.

I lowered my com towards my head and tuned it on. "Boss, we got a problem here. Cage can't get a clear view of the target vehicle, or a clear shot," I explained.

The old man lowered his com and facepalmed himself, despite the other people below still trying to shoot him. "Darn it Cage….." he muttered to himself, before putting the com back to his ear. "D'chan, Rico! Stop that truck now! Do not let it out of your sights!" He ordered, just as a show of bullets showered past him, making him duck his head to avoid being hit. "We'll cover this area, go!"

"Sir, yes sir!" Rico replied firmly.

A moment later, D'chan and Rico leaped into the street, landing feet first as other Korean soldiers tried to stop them. D'chan activated something on his feet, and Rico did the same thing, before the outlines on their armor shined brightly. A split second later, they were gone down the street. In just a split second, they were going the exact speed of what the fleeing truck had been going. D'chan and Rico sprinted heavily down the street, running so hard that they had sent showers of water over their head from the puddles behind them.

"Alright man, I'll take left, you take the right on the building! We'll cross paths with the truck on each side, but be fast!" Rico shouted. "The speed boost only lasts so long!"

D'chan nodded and split ways with his partner. He jumped as high as he could onto the building above him and continued running across another, jumping and leaping over obstacles and satellite dishes in his path. A moment later he found himself running at a normal pace again, where he could just see the headlights of the speeding truck approaching alongside the wall beside him. D'chan pushed himself to run as fast as he could, as he tried to run ahead even further towards the wall. The moment he was about to reach the edge, he braced himself, before dolphin diving as far as he could over the wall. The bottom of his stomach nearly brushed over the wall, but luckily, he had managed to make it over just as the truck sped by. He rolled onto the roof of it, where he managed to regain his balance, but had to hold on for dear life.

He crawled inch by inch along the roof until he reached the place above the driver's seat, and unsheathed a katana from his back. D'chan had managed to drive the katana through the tarp and through the metal, but unfortunately, all it did was catch the drivers attention, and the truck suddenly jerked to the side sharply, sending his legs of the edge of it. He managed to regain balance once more, where he let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly he heard a loud bang from inside the driver's seat, just as a pistol bullet shot through the tarp bouncing off his metal shoulder, followed by three others, which nearly fatally hit him in the head. This time, D'chan switched sides and drove his Katana through the Shotgun seat. A pained scream sounded from within the truck, and a pistol suddenly dropped out of the window, signaling that he had one less gunman to deal with.

But before D'chan could retrieve his Katana, the truck gave another sharp jerk, causing him to lose grip of his weapon and fall off the edge of the truck. He tumbled head first into the slightly muddy road, his naturally blue armor now covered with mud around the chest area. D'chan hit the ground with his fist in discouragement, as he watched the fleeing squad truck speed away.

However, right as the seemingly free truck sped away, its tires suddenly blew and sped out of control. The wheels squealed and screeched furiously as the truck waved from side to side, clearly trying to control itself. But of course, gravity got the upper hand. The truck suddenly started to slowly overturn to the side, the wheels still spinning wildly as it feel onto the rough road. It continued to screech loudly across the road, until it spun to a sudden stop.

That was where Cage and I had finally caught sight of the truck, right when it had crashed.

And sure enough, Rico emerged from the back of the wreckage of the truck, where I could also see the road spikes that had eliminated it.

A few minutes later the rest of the team had arrived, so Cage and I decided to zip line down to meet them.

The old man made his way past the five of us, his red armor starting to show off its bright shade of red in the approaching morning sunlight, which I found to be a fitting picture for our victory. After a small examination of the truck's wreckage, he gestured us forward with a wave of his hand, where we readied our weapons and continued onward.

The driver that had driven the truck had tried to crawl away from the wreckage, but Rico finished him off with a few bullets to the chest, flattening him on the ground once more. Cage and I cautiously made our way around back, our assault rifles ready to kill on target. We were ambushed by an injured Korean soldier with a pistol, but it didn't help him much, and we were able to take care of him easily. After we had made our way around back, I wasn't surprised to find another small handful of injured soldiers on the ground of the truck. Most of them were too weak to even move or get up, but I could tell that they were alive, due to the vital scanner on my helmet. Crates that had contained rations and ammunition were now scattered around the truck and pried open.

Soon enough the, commander and the other team members had made it to our position.

D'chan suddenly hit Rico in the shoulder roughly, but playfully. "Late much, American?" he asked angrily.

Rico laughed. "Yo, it was a long run! What can I say?" He protested with a shrug.

Meanwhile, we stared on at the grisly scene in front of us. I gave the old man a glance. "Hey boss, what should we do about these guys? Capture or exterminate?" I asked with a small nudge. He shook his head in reply, as he approached the badly injured soldiers.

"Negative Michaels, we're taking them in." He walked out into the rising sun and turned back around to face us once more.

"Well done boys, our job is done here. Let's head back to HQ for debrief."

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><p><strong>There's chapter one for you guys. I hope you enjoyed, Chapter 2 is coming soon! Be sure to leave a review, or even follow the story to be prepared for future chapters. i would to hear your thoughts.<strong>

**Chapter 2: Code Red arrives back at HQ for their debriefing, where they surprisingly get the rest of the day off at base. Or at least, that's what they think. **


	2. Home Base

**Hope you enjoy this next chapter! Just to let you know, chapters may change the 1st person perspective of different characters, so that way you can get a taste of what each of them is like. As always, PLEASE share your thoughts and review!**

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><p>"Hey, Michaels, Michaels. Sammy boy, hey! You with us?"<p>

My eyes adjusted to the blinding light of the drop ship, and I soon realized that it was Cage talking to me. He had his helmet off this time, where you could see the regular crew cut that he usually had. I rubbed sleep from my eyes, thankful to have the helmet off. "Yeah man," I said, slightly stirring still.

"Come on Michaels, we're home again man, time to go." He nudged me in the shoulder sharply, before walking towards the ramp leading to outside. Rico and the other guys were already getting up from their seats, so I unbuckled myself from my chair and snatched up my rifle that lie propped next to me, before sitting up from my seat and continuing down the ramp. The minute I had reached the outside of the Drop off Ship, blinding sunlight hit me in the eyes, making me block it from my field of vision with my hand. After my eyes had adjusted again, I could see that we were just approaching General Keagan, along with a few other of his body guards at his side.

Now, before you ask, Kegan is, in short, the big man in charge around here. Our squad may be led by the old man, but even with superiors like him, there is always a tougher dog out there that they bow down to, Kegan in this case. He's the leading General for our base, and has been for 10 years straight, and he's supposedly one of the best Generals that the U.S armed forces have to offer. He even appeared on TV when I was a teenager, on stage during a presidential announcement, shaking hands with the president like they were buddies, because of earning an eye-dropping medal of honor twice. The man's a war hero, and to be perfectly honest, you don't EVER, screw with a guy like that, and I respect him for his status as General. So in short, I guess that means we are lucky. But whether the Gens are nice, mean, disrespectful to you, you know that when you see the five golden solid stars on their beret, that you better be thankful to have them there. Me and the other guys already have been taught that very well. However, being the supposedly, "Heroes of America," we are considered a special case, therefore being given special clearance, so seeing Kegan is no surprise for us, unlike a regular soldier. For them, it's like Christmas Eve to see even the most amateur General, let along in person. We always debrief to Kegan after every mission, and so far, we haven't had any problems getting a good report. Ever sense we went to war with the Korean's, Code Red's been getting in business much faster than usual. But we don't mind, after all, it's what we do which is: Get stuff done.

The General approached us, wearing his usual greyish commander overcoat, and wearing his five star beret as he normally did. A Desert Eagle sidearm was present at his side, which also had five stars engraved into it, but I knew that he had another concealed in his overcoat somewhere, along with a combat knife. When you meet a General like Kegan, you just know that he would never go outside without having at least two trusty sidearms to protect himself with. He had his two medal of honor's badges clipped to the side of his overcoat, which was also decorated with his other rank badges, and who knows what other rewards that he had earned in the past. He had the normal Crew cut like a marine would have as usual, and has a knife scar across the eye patch that covered his right eye. Overall, he looked more like a traveling pirate or merchant than a General, as me and the other guys would say at times when Kegan wasn't present. It was always our inside joke when we would be out of sight of commanding officers. Kegan approached us boldly, his arms behind his back receptively, and his still sharp left eye clearing demanding our attention. The old man approached Kegan from the side, while the rest of us waited behind patiently.

"Well Colonel Franco, let's hear it," Kegan urged with a wave of one of his hands. The old man looked him receptively in the eye, and started his debrief.

"Mission status: Success, General. We managed to currently capture twenty plus Korean soldiers, and exterminate almost an entire convoy, that was on its way to the enemy Korean outpost, sir!"

Kegan nodded with satisfaction, but I knew that he wasn't finished. "Have you managed to retrieve the precious cargo?" He asked a moment later.

"Yes sir, and I'm afraid it's just as we thought, missiles. The North Koreans know where the entrance to Seoul is, and the border all around it, but luckily, they haven't located the current Capital Building that the president is at. However, I assure you Kegan, my men and I are ready to defend the Capital when needed, you won't find any better defense anywhere else."

After he had said this, the two exchanged a few words in silence, and the Colonel nodded in reply to Kegan's words. They both approached our group a moment later, and we stood at attention as a sign of respect.

The General gave us a brief smile, now noticing this. "At ease soldiers," he said firmly with a wave of his hand, and we all settled down at the command. "You've all done a fine job today I hear," he remarked.

None of us knew exactly what to say, so I decided to speak up for our team. "Yes sir."

I expected him to probably frown or something, but all he did was nod in response, and continued pacing down our line of team members, back and forth.

"You've all done very well today, Code Red, and I'm proud of that. It may not seem like it at the moment, but every step the six of you take you take, including that convoy being intercepted, brings us another day closer to our glorious victory. Concluding to that, I think you've all earned the rest of your beauty sleep back today, if there are no objections. Take the rest of the day off soldiers, you have truly earned it," he finished.

"Thank you, General!" We all said in firm unison, before saluting him with respect.

"Dismissed!" Kegan said with a returned salute, before walking off towards the main command post.

As we entered through the automatic doors leading to the barracks, me and the other guys couldn't help feeling relieved, as a whoosh of cool air hit us in the face. "Ah man, home sweet home!" Rico said as he sighed happily, and took off his helmet. Unlike the rest of us, Rico was dark skinned, and had puffy hair, which stood out much from our hairstyles, consisting of mostly crew cuts and short hair. He had preferred to have his hair that way, insisting that it would be cooler when being out in the hot sun. Not that it would help him much, being inside of an armored suit all day and all.

We all made our way into our quarters, where we changed from our armor into more relaxed clothes in the locker rooms.

For us, the relaxed clothes were mostly army/camo jackets that we wore underneath our armor, so that we didn't care as much weight when in the armor. The more weight he had on our backs, the harder it was to control how you moved in it. But we didn't mind, even if it wasn't shorts and a regular white tee shirt, we were just glad to be out of that machine.

"Yo, did you see Rico take out that truck?" Kaplan was just saying.

Cage laughed slightly in reply. "Don't I wish," he said, just as he had starting applying deodorant to himself. "I only saw the part where the dang thing went down in front of my sights," he added.

"I couldn't have taken it out like that," I admitted, also laughing lightly, and gave Rico a pat on the back. "Nice job buddy."

D'chan had listened been listening to the conversation meanwhile, as he finished putting his blue armor back into lockdown mode. "Ha, if I do so say myself American, that was a pretty impressive feat you made back there," he said with a amused scoff. "Not that I couldn't have dealt with it myself," he added arrogantly, before walking away to his room.

Cage laughed. "Says you Korean," he muttered, earning a few laughs from Rico and I.

Cage and I finished our lockdown and suit repairs, so we were able to return to our rooms right after D'chan.

Luckily for us, we didn't have to stay in quarters aligned with bunk beds like normal soldiers did. We get our own rooms, our own beds, and are even able to personalize it how we like. For me personally, I'm not really much of a decorative guy, so my room is pretty much the same as it was when I had first got it. The other guys indulge, being able to personalize their rooms, unlike me. But nevertheless, it's nice having your own room to yourself.

Now that I was finally back in my own room again, I didn't hesitate to rest the minute I had the chance, though as I did, I couldn't help thinking: All in a day's work.

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><p>Cage here. Yeah, that's me, the guy who sniped those Koreans back there. As if any of the guys would give a flying crap about what I do for us. Not that I care what they think anyway.<p>

But let me tell you something, five years in prison taught me one important lesson about everything I do in Code Red:

1. Don't trust anyone.

I have always gone by this rule, because the way I see it, you could be backstabbed by anyone, even the people you trust most. I know this from experience. And the reason I am mentioning this, is because of the Korean. The one Korean that I am specifically talking about, is the smart alek in the blue armor, D'chan. The other guys think I'm just being flat out paranoid about this, but am I? No, that's my answer. So if you're curious about why I feel that way about him, let me state the obvious: He's a Korean. And the Koreans, are who we are currently fighting. So why bring a guy who fought against us just recently, and let HIM, of all people, join Code Red? I never understood the answer clearly, even after I was explained about it. And it's not just him. It's everyone. Sure, the six of us had worked together for at least five years now, and we've saved each other's skins more times than we could count on our fingers. But that leads me to another scenario that I witnessed personally: What would happened if they were to turn on you? Let me answer for you: You wouldn't have the guts to react properly.

No matter how many times I smiled, laughed, shared a beer with one of those guys at HQ, I couldn't help thinking that. Maybe it's just Prison. Maybe it's just that I'm crazy. But if it's the second option, than I'm crazy with a reason. Basically, it's better to be insane and prepared, than sane and not prepared. That's my prison logic. And I will never change that opinion.

Anyway, you're probably wondering what is I've been doing, sense we got back from our mission. Unlike that Kaplan wimp, and the others, I constantly keep myself fit. With most of the spare time I have, I use it lifting weights, running treadmills, drinking water, and then lifting more weights. What comes next after that? Lifting more weights. Next? More Weights. Clearly, that is another trait I got from Prison, and one that I am proud of. It may seem like overkill at times, but I don't mind. Though, I will admit, I am a fan of gaming. But unlike the guys, I don't play them constantly. The one thing that you should know about me overall, is I'm not one for screwing around. Because screwing around is not on Lucas Cage's to-do list.

I had just finished lifting a two sided 100 plus pounder weight, but I wasn't exhausted yet. I was sweating bullets, but I wasn't out yet. I wiped a river of sweat off my forehead, before proceeding to the pull up bar, which was at least three feet above the top of my head. I crouched slightly and jumped as high as I could, just barely managing to grasp my slippery hands around the metal bar. I grunted with effort, as I immediately started pushing myself into a series of pull ups. I didn't move my feet one inch, even though it hurt even more and took more effort to reach the top. I continued doing pull ups for another 20 minutes straight, and by then, my hands were on fire. I growled and grunted with pain as I pushed myself even harder, managing to squeeze in five or ten more pull ups, before I let go of it, landing feet first on the ground. I grabbed a nearby towel that hung over a chair in front of me, and sat down in the chair. I snorted and wiped myself all around with the towel, before wiping my face last. As I brought the towel down from my face, I could see Michaels standing at my doorway, clutching a water bottle bundle.

"What do you want?" I asked, wiping more sweat off my forehead.

"We're heading down to the mess hall for lunch now, you coming?" Michaels asked as he tossed me water, which I caught in one hand with ease.

I immediately drained the entire water bottle in a few seconds, before I could reply. "Yeah, yeah, just give me a sec, I'll be right down."

After he had left, I snatched a plain, white T-shirt from my dresser and put it on. I dried off the last bit of sweat off of me, and tossed my towel back over the chair that it lied on before. When I was sure that everything was back in order, I grabbed my sidearm from my bed stand, and continued out the door.

When I had reached the mess hall, I found it surprisingly not as busy like I thought it was going to be. There were a few stray soldier sitting around the base at tables, some busier than others, but otherwise, it looked like we had a free choice of seats. We picked an empty table near the end of the room to sit, and I set my trey down casually next to Michaels. Rico and D'chan sat diagonally from me, so I was pretty much in the middle today. We didn't really have a certain order we sat, unlike regular troops or divisions that eat at certain times, so we sat where we pleased. Most of the guys weren't really that talkative today, and they mostly just talked about how amazing Rico was at dealing with the truck before, stupid and boring stuff really. I just sat there quietly, with my lunch already finished, while they talked away, with their lunch cold and only halfway finished. The only time I really had something to say, was during a conversation that Rico had started.

"Man, and to think that we got the rest of the day off today!" He commented.

"I know right?" Kaplan commented. "So many dang missions to do, yet we don't have any more today!"

Rico finished off his water bottle and took a large bite of his apples, but he still talked in between, and I could see his ugly golden front teeth as he did.

"Yo, speaking of which, have any of you guys seen the command log yet? Cause I don't know if we got anything for tomorrow," Rico asked in between chews.

"Hopefully nothing," Michaels commented, and I couldn't help chuckling in agreement.

That was when I spoke up. "I didn't see anything tomorrow, so I think we're all good," I stated, thought I felt uncertain about it. I had only seen the command log briefly today in the morning, so I wasn't sure if it had changed yet.

A few of the guys whooped and cheer and high fived each other in relief. But they were cut short, when a voice behind us interrupted the celebration.

"You boys shouldn't be too sure about that."

Sure enough, it was the old man. He walked up to his, this time, wearing a black tank top and camouflaged pants. His dog tag swayed from around his neck, and I could partially see his Colonel ranking engraved on it.

"What do you mean by that sir?" Kaplan asked, as we glanced in his direction.

The old man stopped in front of us briefly and looked Kaplan in the eye. "I mean, our schedule is full tomorrow, unfortunately," he replied. I could hear a few unhappy groans behind me, but honestly I couldn't blame them. I was hoping for a clear day for once, but I guess being Code Red and all, that's too much to hope for.

"What are we supposed to be doing tomorrow sir?" Michaels then asked.

"You will be informed of your assignment tomorrow," he immediately said afterwards, giving Michaels the evil eye to be quiet. "That's what I came here to tell you all. Be in the hanger at 06:00:00 tomorrow, that's all you need to know. I hate to tell you this, but Kegan and I have been talking, and there has been a slight- complication in your success yesterday," Franco (A.K.A the old man) explained. "Is that clear?"

We all knew there was no point in arguing, so we simply stood at attention and saluted him with respect. "Sir yes sir!" We all said in unison. After being dismissed, I couldn't help miserably thinking, "Some day off."

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed! Please share your thoughts and SMASH that review button for me! (Not literally. XD)<strong>

**Chapter 3: Code Red's success against the convoy produces a slight backfire effect at them, where they find out about the real, true threat against Seoul.**


	3. Backfire

**So good to get another chapter published today! Hope you enjoy it, and as always, please be sure to post a review or two. ;D**

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><p>Michaels here.<p>

I want to at least say a few things about Cage before I go on about how today went. I think it's time I explain about the big guy after all.

Now, it may seem pretty obvious already, but the guy has been in prison for five years at one point. He doesn't like to talk about, but Cage had gone in for a pretty nasty reason. And what exactly did he do that was so bad? He assaulted the commanding officer. Sounds stupid right? Well let me explain why, and exactly how it happened.

Cage had just joined the marines, after high school, like me, and because of that, he had already been serving his 4th year in the core, and not even out yet! Now Cage, as you can probably imagine, was amazing at his job as a soldier. Just at the start of his 4th year, Cage had managed to make it to the rank of Staff Sergeant. And let me tell you, THAT rank is a big deal and honor. Things were practically going awesome for him, and he had even earned a few reward badges during his time serving. Just not as good ones as the Medal of Honor of course. Now, here's the part that he screwed up on. Something went down on a mission that he was sent on, to capture a Ukraine drug lord. I didn't hear exactly what, but from what I heard, he really majorly screwed up on it, which had given the drug lord an easy escape point. And boy was the General not happy. He took away Cage's staff sergeant badge as punishment for insubordination of a direct order, and ordered him to probation for three weeks, until he could properly be trusted in the field again. And wouldn't you know it, that's where the assault part came in, leading to Cage being sentenced to ten years in prison, for drawing a weapon on a commanding officer. But five years into his sentence, Cage got extremely lucky. Code Red had started during his first year in prison, and now they needed more team members as it turned out. The military government then received a proposal from the Old man himself, to let Cage loose, if they allowed him to join Code Red. Apparently, they had heard about his immense strength and status as a war hero in the past, despite his criminal record, and decided that he was good enough to join. Anyway, the government was reluctant about it, but eventually allowed Cage to receive a pardon from prison, on the condition that he stayed with Code Red for five years, and that he never be able to return to the marine corps again. He agreed, and that was how Cage had come to join Code Red.

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><p>I awoke to the constant annoying buzzing of my alarm clock, which read 5:40 AM. I hesitated on getting up and wanted to hit the snooze button, wondering why I had even thought of setting my clock to that time. Then the reason hit me, and I remembered it all of where I was supposed to be today.<p>

After brushing my teeth and taking care of the essentials, I tossed on a new, fresh pair of camo clothing. I then grabbed my sidearm that usually lied under my pillow at night, and continued out the door.

I reached the main hanger a few minutes later to surprisingly find myself the first person there. At the same time, it wasn't surprising to find that Cage or Rico weren't there. They always seemed to be the ones slacking off, and I knew very well that they didn't enjoying getting up this early, despite having to do it all day, every day.

The next twenty or so minutes passed before the rest of the crew had actually arrived, including Franco. The team and I sat around on a few of the storage crates in the hanger, and we waited patiently for the old man to start talking. He stole a glance to the large, metal doorway leading to the runway outside, before turning his attention back to us, his hands behind his back respectively again.

"Alright boys, now that you're all here, I think it's time that I explain why I have you up so early again," he started. "I think you all remember the convoy that we had intercepted yesterday, correct?" We all gave a causal nod in reply.

"Well I have some very unfortunate new for us," he stated, starting to pace back and forth. "It appears that the precious cargo that we managed to retrieve, had unarmed missiles."

This immediately sent commotion from the guys. Rico took a step forward from us. "Whoa whoa, wait a minute here! So you're telling us that those missiles we got back there were duds?" He asked in disbelief.

Franco nodded gravely. "Unfortunately yes. As it turns out, the real missiles have been shipped to what's supposedly an oil refinery," he started to explain.

"So what were those missiles back their?" Rico asked, putting his hands up in disbelief. "How the heck were those unarmed? I know for a fact that those were real warheads, they ain't no fakes boss!" He insisted.

"That's what we just discovered from our undercover operatives in North Korea," Franco replied with a nod. "As it turned out, the ones that you intercepted and captured were being sent to the compound as a decoy, and backups, just in case the other armed ones were to be destroyed, and then the Korean's could re-arm them, and be ready to go again," he explained.

Rico turned around, putting his hands on his face in frustration, and Cage hit one of the storage crates with anger.

"Those dang Koreans! They always find some way to mess with our heads!" Cage said with discouragement.

Kaplan nodded, his hand brushing his small beard thoughtfully. "And sense the disarmed ones were acquired by us, then that means that the armed ones have arrived at their launch point by now," he worked out.

The old man once again gave him a nod of confirmation. "Correct as always Kaplan." He turned to the rest of us. "And that's where you all come in. Kegan just doesn't want those missiles disarmed and destroyed; he wants the oil factory gone also. Code Red, our job today is simple: Infiltrate the oil refinery using covert tactics, eliminating all hostile resistance in our path, and take out those missiles. Once we're done with the missiles, we move on to the next part of the plan, which involves taking out the oil factory for good. We can't have that refinery still standing, and sending oil to those Korean's vehicles, so we HAVE to make sure that it sinks to the ground," He explained. "But make sure to stay quiet during the infiltration," he added, "we can't have the Korean's alarm-"

Suddenly, a blaring sounded from the sirens around us, and at once, I knew what they meant.

The intercom crackled on at the exact moment. "Attention Code Red, attention Code Red, you are being called for duty! Please retrieve your gear, and arrive at drop ship number seven, at landing pad 1277 as soon as possible. That is all!"

We all immediately started towards the locker rooms, the old man in front leading us. "Alright boys, let's move! Time to suit up!" he told us firmly.

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><p>I tossed on my armor and hooked the shoulder plates that way they stayed attached to the rest of the armor, and they automatically came together. I grabbed my helmet from the slot in my locker and put it on, and immediately, I started to see the vital scanner and HUD appear on the visor view of my helmet. I turned to Cage, who was had just finished putting on his dark green armor on.<p>

"Hey Cage! Did they say pad 1277?" I asked out loud.

Cage tossed me my assault rifle and I cocked back the trigger on it so that way it would fire at the ready. "Yeah, it's the drop ship's waiting for us just south of the hanger!" He called back.

Franco came rushing to the door way, in his bright red armor again, and waved us toward him frantically. "Come on boys, we gotta get to that Dropship in no less than a minute, hurry up!" He called to us firmly.

We followed him out the door and raced down the stairs, our weapons readied and fully loaded. Our heavy footsteps pounded against the metal stairs, and if I didn't sound any better, I'd say that we sounded like a heard of angry rhinos. After we had reached the hanger, we found the large doors open that lead to the outside, no surprise to us, and we continued through them as fast as we could. I could see the landing pad that we'd been assigned to, just across the runway. One of the airline traffic guards waved us through when it was safe to go, and we continued up a small hill, until we caught sight of the Dropship. "Go, go, go!" The old man hustled us inside with a frantic wave of his hands, and he ran inside, just as the ramp had closed.

I sighed with relief, as I sat down in one of the chairs to relax, and so did the rest of the guys. For me, it was like having a timed race to get to the ship in time, so we had to be fast if we were going to make it.

"Cutting it a little close, aren't we boys?" Our pilot up front said with a teasing laugh.

The old man chuckled and cracked a small smirk. "Just shut up and drive Josiah," he ordered.

"Right away boys," he replied in compliance. "According to our debrief and scanners, we should be at refinery around noon, maybe later, so sit back and enjoy the ride my friends, you are just about to enter North Korea's border." The pilot informed us with a fake cheer through the intercom.

Rico and Cage let out a laugh. "Yeah so much fun, we get to enter enemy territory, _Again,_" Rico added with a roll of his eyes.

"It ain't that bad man," Cage insisted, "At least we get to get back in there and crack some more skulls." He said, pounding his hands together.

Rico scoffed and chuckled lightly, shaking his head briefly. "Yo, that's messed up man!"

I couldn't help chuckling a little too. Cage did have a messed up sense of humor at times, and he did think dirty sometimes too, but I found it funny just to see people's reactions to it.

At that exact moment, a high pitched whining sounded from the ship, and I knew right away we were about to take off. "Attention Code Red, we are now preparing for liftoff, please buckle your safety belts and enjoy the ride," the pilot informed us.

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><p>I awoke again, this time; right in the nick of time, to find that the boss was discussing the plan already. I knew that because of that, we must be pretty close to the refinery at this point. I sat and picked up my rifle, and just held it casually. Obviously, the other guys were all standing up around Franco.<p>

I was surprised that we were able to stand, but I knew that our faithful plane could maintain a steady course, which allowed us to stay standing without tumbling around clumsily. The high tech machine was built for many things that normal U.S carriers of helicopters were not normally equipped for. Again, another privilege of being in Code Red.

"Alright men, listen up. I'm only gonna go through this once, so pay close attention," France snapped sharply.

"While you have all been getting your beauty sleep lately, I have been talking with the pilot, and it just so happens that the oil refinery that the missiles are located at is heavily guarded with North Korean troops and aircraft. Because of this, we will have to be dropped off at a check point overlooking the refinery. The path to the check point will also have mild resistance along the way, but until we reach the missile silo, we deal with any hostile forces that we encounter discreetly. When we do manage to reach the silo, we will deal with the missiles before they can launch, but be advised. As soon as we blow the charges, we will have enemy forces coming in from every direction, and we may have to consider the possibility of Korean Elite's guarding the facility, so proceed with caution. Anyhow, once we reach the main controls to the oil facility, we set it to overdrive, place additional charges if needed, get the heck out of there intact, and watch the fireworks. It sounds simple, but don't be fooled. This operation will take time, and time is something that Kegan simply cannot waste," France finished.

"Are there any questions?" He asked aloud.

Silence meant in response from us.

And right on time also, we heard the radio crackle on again, and the small sirens blare a warning yellow color.

"Alright boys, time to go. You know the drill, take out that oil factory and get back home safety please!" The pilot told us firmly.

At that moment, the co-pilot stepped out from his seat and meant us at the ramp with parachutes, just as the ramp started to open. He tossed each of us a chute, and I grabbed mine the minute it was thrown to me. We all readied ourselves to jump, waiting for Franco to give the go signal, and for the lights near the ramp to turn green.

We all had our helmets on this time, and I could hear Kaplan's silent breathing through his helmet behind me. We all waited deadly still, until we saw Franco wave us on, as soon as the lights turned green.

"Go, go, go!" He yelled, before running off the edge of the ramp with his chute.

We all ran off, one by one, and I was the last one to go.

I let out my breath deeply, before narrowing my back slightly, running forward, and at the last second, I jumped off the edge.

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><p><strong>Wow, intense! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! And oh yes, now comes my favorite part of this story: The battle scenes. You already know what to expect from here, so don't hesitate to add this to your alert listfavorite list if you want to know when the battle chapters come! I am aware that you are probably all eager to see them!**

**As always, please be sure to share your thoughts and, REVIEW!**

**Chapter 4 preview: Code Red arrives at the check point, where they covertly make their way through enemy lines towards the oil refinery. But they run into slight... complications, to start with.  
><strong>


	4. Complications

**I know, early chapter. XD But anyways, hope you enjoy! Don't forget to leave a review.**

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><p>I immediately found myself gliding through the air using my parachute, for which I was extremely grateful to have at the time. I saw other chutes open around me, one by one, and I saw the chutes then form the usual mushroom shapes that they did. Before I knew it, me and the other guys were just six mushrooms gliding through the sky, as if it were a normal day. I could hear my earcom once again turn on once we were all gliding in the air safely. "Alright boys, you know the drill. We all won't land at the exact location, so try to regroup on me when you do, but first, we need to take of the check," the old man insisted. The check was something we did after we had opened our chutes, to make sure that all six of us were okay.<p>

"Rico?" he asked.

"Flying high."

"Cage?"

"Flying high."

"Kaplan?"

"Flying high."

"Michaels?"

"Flying high," I replied confidently.

Then it became D'chan's check. "D'chan?"

Nobody answered, so the boss figured maybe he didn't hear it. "D'chan, are you good? D'chan!"

Still no one answered. And that sent a chill up my spine. Had something happened to him on the drop? Or had something worse occurred? Maybe I was just being paranoid like Cage, because I knew sometimes he would mess with us, but I always knew D'chan to be the mostly serious type, and he would _never _screw around in a situation like this. It just wasn't like him to be that way, and that made me nervous.

"D'chan! Stop screwing with us, talk to me Korean!" Franco ordered through the coms. And of course, no one responded.

No one spoke for a minute, until Franco decided to talk again. "Darn, either that Korean's got us going good, or something's up with him. Either way, find a landing spot everyone! Regroup on me, I will activate my heartbeat beacon so you can find me, but watch out for D'chan! We leave no man behind!" He insisted, before my com went dark.

I waited patiently for my chute to get me closer to the sandy ground, but I was nervous that something would go wrong with it, like I thought had happened with D'chan. But to my relief, the chute went smoothly to the ground, closer and closer, until my feet could finally touch the ground. I skidded across the sand briefly until I could balance and stop myself, and unhooked the parachute from my shoulders, before tossing it onto the ground. I took out my M4 assault rifle from my back and made sure the clip was loaded into it, before cocking back the trigger once more on it. Looking towards the tree line, I took a big breath, and started my descent into the palm tree, my trusty weapon readied. My steps made a crunch sound each time my metal footsteps landed on a twig, and I could hear the ocean waves behind me. Even though the footsteps were my own, they still made me feel uneasy and slightly paranoid. I didn't know if the Koreans were watching me with their aircraft or Elite's at this moment, even though I knew I would be ready for them if they did come. They wouldn't go down without a fight, I knew that much at least. But if they were going to take me, I'd take every last one of them with me, before I breathed my last breath.

Suddenly, the scanner on my wrist beeped rapidly, and I knew at once that it was the boss' heart beat scanner. I could see that it was about 100 + meters away, not that far from my position. I took a few more cautious steps forward, to find two more green heartbeats appear on my wrist radar. I knew judging from the color that it was friendlies, and sure enough, one figure on each side of me uncloaked themselves, Kaplan and Cage. They both had their assault rifles readied, and they put their right hands in the air to let me know that it was them, and I nodded in confirmation. We then continued through the trees silently, the old man's location on my heartbeat monitor starting to decrease about five meters every few seconds we moved, until we eventually came up to a small waterfall up ahead.

Two small red dots then appeared on our radar, and I knew right away that they were clearly Koreans. Up ahead on the small ridge above the waterfall, the two Korean soldiers that I had spotted walked out onto it, their weapons lowered casually. They hadn't noticed us yet, and we were hidden from their line of sight, so that gave us the element of surprise. The three of us separated and took positions behind trees, just at the edge of the cluster of the tree line leading to the waterfall. I glanced at Cage, who gave me a nod.

"You take the one on the right and I'll take the one on your left, on your go," he told me.

I nodded back, and readied my weapon to shoot, only to find Franco, blasting them both off the ridge with his silenced Colt, one shot to the head each. I sighed and lowered by weapon. _Really Colonel? _I couldn't help feeling a little angered by this, but nevertheless, I jogged into the now clear area, up to the old man's position. We found that Rico was there as well, but of course, no sign of D'chan.

"Good to see you gentlemen," Franco said with a nod. We all lowered our weapons briefly.

"So what happens now? We still gotta find the Korean you know," Cage reminded the old man.

Franco gave him a brief glare to shut his mouth. "_Yes, _Cage, I am aware that D'chan, the Korean, is still out there, and we will find him but first, we need to find some way to contact him or locate him," he insisted sharply. "Why don't we give the earcoms a go again?"

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><p>My eyes hesitantly opened to the blinding sunlight beyond the grass above me, and I heard the sound of buzzing….. almost as if it were the earcom that those Americans had given. That's when I realized two things that seemed very wrong in this situation I was now in now. For one, that grass above my head, was blinding trees covering my head. And two, I was hanging upside down, stuck in a tree, in my parachute. My own chute, that's right. I sighed with frustration, remembering my stupid mishap when I had tried to open the darned parachute that I had been given, and I hadn't even been able to open it until I had nearly reached the top of the trees. And now here I was, stuck all because of a defective American device that clearly hated me.<p>

I heard the beeping of my earcom again, and I reached to my ear with my gloved hand to answer. "D'chan, What is your current status? D'chan are you their? Do you copy over? Talk to me dang it!"

"I copy Colonel, and I'm- sort of fine," I replied, while struggling to cut the black rope that suspended me with my small wrist knife. I flopped back upside down, after one more useless attempt to cut it.

"For god's sake, you nearly scared the living crap out of me! Good to hear you alive but- what do you mean by sort of fine?" The Colonel asked, almost out of breath from relief.

I rolled my eyes, as I attempted to cut the rope again. "Well- if you- consider being stuck in a tree because of a defective device sort of okay, then yes," I said sarcastically, struggling to talk while trying to cut the rope.

"Darn you D'chan! You'd better find a way to get out there, and fast! If you can get out of there fast enough, try to track your way to us, but we will try to get to you if you can't," Franco replied.

Suddenly, I heard a rustle up ahead in the bushes, and heard a distant beep on my heartbeat radar, where I saw three red dots approaching my position. "Got it, got to go boss!" I whispered frantically. Before he could respond I turned off my com, and swiftly focused on getting out of this chute.

A few moments past, and the Korean's were getting closer….. closer and closer to the heartbeat monitor until they made their way to D'chan's crash sight. The only thing missing from it? D'chan. The three armed Korean's made their way up to the stuck parachute cautiously to investigate the scene. They found that the rope holding the parachute and been cut by a knife, and a beeping heart beat sensor on the ground… left by me of course.

Before any of them could react, I rolled behind one of the Korean's in the back while in cloak mode, and slit his throat with my Katana. Just as the other two had turned around to find their partner dead, one of the Korean's noticed my glimmer and tried to shoot me, but I leaped to the side, knocked his assault rifle out of his hands and hid behind him briefly, leaping out of the way right as his partner accidentally shot him dead. I dodged his incoming shotgun blast to the side, and finished him with a thrown combat knife to the skull, knocking him flat on his back, dead. In just a few seconds, the battle with the three fools had been over. And I didn't even need a gun to finish these clowns. I walked up to the last one that I had terminated, and grabbed the combat knife out from his skull, cleaning it with the sleeve of his undershirt, before putting it back into my ankle sheathe.

I said a Korean prey of respect for the dead soldiers, before closing their unmoving eyes. Even though they are the enemy now, I did used to fight beside them once and I have not lost all of my respect for them. Even your worst enemy deserves a prey of respect, as long as they fought until the end without surrendering. That was a part of my honor code that I follow. I have followed it ever sense, and it is something that I am truly proud of, as a part of my Korean heritage. Although I know what General Zhou did to South Korea was truly wrong and full of greed in so many different ways, I cannot forgive myself at times for what I have done to my former comrades…... or what I have done to my country. But in the end, all I know is that America's intentions are in the best interest for Korea's liberation, and that is all I want for both North, and South Korea. Then maybe, just maybe this nightmarish conquest attempt will end, once and for all...

You may be wondering about Zhou, and who he is, and I will give you the brief answer of him. General Jin Zhou, leader of the dogs. The man who changed history with a single, heartless decision. The man who divided the North and the South of the free peoples, and started this bloody, never ending nightmare. He is the solid hand of the North, the leader, the dictator, the rebel, and the devil. The man will stop at nothing to take all of Korea, and he believes he has won so far. But what he doesn't know…. What he doesn't know, is that I am coming for him, someday. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday. And I will carve my name in his face when I do find him, and he will know his one folly, when the South cowers over his dying corpse victorious. Now you know my story, or at least, for the most part. It has no end until the devil himself falls…..

I unsheathed my Katana and put my pistol away, before checking the heart beat radar again. From what I could see, the rest of my allies were currently about two hundred and fifty meters out, so I had ground to cover, and I had to do it swiftly. For they could not wait, and neither could Zhou's demise.

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><p>"Time to move," Franco told us after a moment of scouting the area on a map of the island. He pointed towards the west side of the tree line, and we followed him. "D'chan should be regrouping with us shortly everyone, but still, stay sharp," he warned, as we continued through the woods.<p>

We all jogged forward, but made sure we didn't make too much noise with our footsteps, though it was hard not to in this bulky armor. We made our way down a small grassy hill, to find ourselves on a rougher patch of rocky terrain that was gritty looking with light patches of sand. I could see that the sun was pounding down on it, and I was happy that there weren't as many trees in that area, though I knew we had to be wary of incoming choppers in the sky. The Korean's had, _major, _technological advances in aircraft too, we weren't the only nation with cool looking ships and weapons. After all, this was the 21st century wasn't it?

I could hear the sound of running water beside me, and I noticed a small stream, getting larger as we jogged our way alongside it, and eventually, it led to a river just up ahead. A patch of longer grass lied up ahead, and before I could run forward, the old man suddenly grabbed my shoulder sharply and forced me onto the ground with a hard tug. "Get down now, chopper!" He warned in a loud whisper, as the other guys immediately fell onto their stomachs in panic.

Sure enough, the repeating sound of the helicopter blades filled my ears, and I could hear the propellers whirling around, just as a squad of Korean squad helicopters whooshed over our heads. The huge amount of wind that the propellers had created caused the longer grass that we lie in to swirl around furiously, before it became still again. I could see the feet of many Korean soldiers hanging off the end of the copters, and I knew that they were being delivered….. somewhere.

The minute the choppers had gone out of our line of sight, the team sat up cautiously from the ground, but I rushed up ahead, towards the hill up ahead. As I reached the top of it, I then saw what we'd been looking for. The old man and others meet up with me. "What are you looking at-"

Franco immediately closed his mouth when he saw it. We all lowered our weapons in awe, to find ourselves staring at an ENORMOUS, oil factory, thousands of meters below us, across a stone bridge. A few dozen Korean Helicopters swarmed over the factory, and the troop of them that we had just encountered was heading towards the factory. Swarms of Korean troops marched across the bridge, like a crowd of little army ants marching across the table at home. I didn't have my bio cam out at the moment, but I could tell right away, they were armed to the teeth. A large mass of dark smoke rose into the air, out of the large tube that probably contained the majority of the oil. Three other tubes on each side of it rose out of the refinery, more smoke coming out of them and drifting into the air.

Our mouths were open with shock, and my eyes could scarcely believe what I was seeing. Franco gulped, and readied his weapon. "Well boys, let's take out that oil refinery." And I couldn't agree more at the comment.

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><p><strong>Okay, now comes the REAL battle scenes. But I am afraid that it will be a little longer than a few weeks before i can do chapter five, due to the need to finish a chapter for my, "How the Legend came to be," story. But please don't give up on it! It will come soon, be patient. as always, be sure to share your thoughts and review!<strong>

**Chapter 5 preview: Code Red maneuvers through the heavily guarded path to the Oil Factory, where they encounter the mild resistance that they were told about, only to find it more complicated then that. **


	5. Ambush

**Hope you enjoy yet another chapter of Code Red! This chapter will be pretty darn long, but other than that, I don't think there is anything else worth mentioning. Enjoy, and be sure to share your thoughts and review!**

**Oh, and I forgot to mention, I decided to add a certain theme song to the video to set the mood of one of the battle scenes. In order for me not to spoil a certain part of the story, please wait until you have reached the end, or if you want to risk spoilers, see the theme song at last Author note.**

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><p>"We should take the path through the woods," Franco told us as we stepped over a few logs, "it will get us to the refinery faster, and hopefully lead us through a less hostile rich area."<p>

"But sir, how exactly do we know that for sure, if you don't mind me asking?" Kaplan asked curiously.

"We don't Kaplan, that's what I'm trying to say," Franco responded.

I walked down the rocky hill along with the other guys, my weapon readied just in case we ran into trouble. The sun wasn't as harsh anymore, due to it going into the late afternoon hours, and I was happy that it wasn't as hot it was a while ago. We trudged through another patch of rocky area, where another smaller stream ran under us that I could see through the cracks of the rock that I stood on. Down below us, there was more island like trees that stretched below the area, even though we technically were on an island.

Kaplan nudged me in the shoulder. "Hey Sam, got a question for yah," he insisted as we walked, "What do you think we're gonna find at that refinery exactly?"

"Oil," I said bluntly. Kaplan chuckled and hit me playfully in the shoulder. "No, I mean other than that," he pushed.

"Well, more unfriendly Koreans who probably want to murder us in our sleep of course, and those missiles that we are looking for, why?" I asked back.

Kaplan gazed ahead in the distance, as if he were looking into the future. "You really want to know what I think?" He stated. I nodded uncertainly, not sure where this conversation was going.

Kaplan had always been known as the nerd of the team, and he was the youngest, considering he had taken 5 years in advanced biomechanics and science. But the guy is nuts at times, and I mean, _nuts._ He always acts like some kind of oracle during some points, and I honestly think that it's because of how overly smart he is. So if you want the reason he's in Code Red, I'll cut it to you short: He's a dang genius. The kid scored triple my IQ score! And left me tell you, that is nearly impossible to earn human wise, but he did it with no cheating, at 23 years old. The next thing you know, bam, he's sent an invitation to Code Red, due to his extensive knowledge of Biomechanics and military technology. After two years of military training, he's ready to go for Code Red, and he's been here for three years ever sense. Can't say I'm not thankful for him though, the guy's saved our skin with his clever tricks, so clever that not even the old man himself could have thought them up.

"I think, that in that Oil facility, we're not going to find two missiles there, but _hundreds," _Kaplan told me.

And of course, I thought that the kid was insane. "Hundreds? Why do you think that? There's supposed to be only two there!" I pointed out.

"Buddy, can you not see it? A factory that large, there's bound to be more than two putrid missiles. And you know what else I think? I think that they've been creating missiles there for the entire war, and that's why it is so essential that we destroy this place," he explained. "If we can take out this factory, then maybe-"

Suddenly, the loud crack of a rifle broke the dead silence, and Kaplan's shoulder plate was hit, knocking him to the ground. He immediately screamed out in pain and clutched his cracked shoulder plate, and I knew at once that an armor piercing round had hit him. Another crack broke the silence, and Franco tackled Rico behind cover, just as a bullet streaked past the rock, sending a chuck of stone flying off of it. "Sniper, 50 cal, get down!" He yelled out in panic. I ducked behind a large rock, and blind fired at where the bullet had come from with my M4, before another crack sounded, right as I had taken cover.

"Rico, cover me while I get a location on that sniper!" Franco yelled, turning to me. "Michaels! Get to Kaplan now, he's wounded!" He ordered.

I wasn't paying attention. Instead, I had managed to steal a glance at the long grassed field out in front of us, and the HUD on my helmet saw them, landmines.

"NOW!" The old man shouted, propelling me into action.

"Watch out, I caught sight of landmines down at the field near the bottom! I think that's where the sniper might be!" I shouted back at him, before running over to Kaplan's aid.

I crouched down beside him after laying down covering fire, and went to work on Kaplan. I unhooked his shot shoulder plate from the rest of his armor, and I could see that it had clearly gone through the armor. "Hang in there Kaps! I gotcha, it's just a fresh wound!" I said firmly.

Meanwhile, Rico changed positions from his rock to another silently and started blind firing at where the sniper was supposedly located at. Another loud crack, and Rico knew it was time for him to change positions again. At the rate the sniper was firing a shot, he knew that it was a fully automatic sniper rifle that he had been using, possibly a Barret 50 Caliber, if it had pierced Kaplan's armor plate that easily. If he hadn't had that armor on, the 50 Cal. would have torn Kaplan apart for sure, Rico knew that for a fact. A few shots sounded from Cage's sniper, before a crack from the enemy's sniper sent him behind cover again. "Where is he?!" Cage yelled to Rico.

"I don't know man! He keeps changing his position, and I can't get a clear sight of him! How about you?" Rico shouted back.

Cage shook his head in dismay, before taking one last glance at the sniper's hill, and taking cover again. "Try to draw his fire on my mark, then I'll take him, but watch yourself!" Cage ordered.

Rico nodded, before proceeding to follow the plan they had just created. Cage crouched under his piece of cover and cautiously made his way to the end of the rock as fast as he could and then dropped onto his belly, watching the sniper's hill with his sniper sights. Rico's machine gun fire sounded for one second, and Cage held his finger down on the trigger, right as he caught a glimpse of a flash from the sniper's position. He pulled his finger back on the trigger, but his bullet harmlessly hit the trees from what his HUD was telling him. Cage waited a second time, and even though I was helping Kaplan at the time, I could tell that he was stressed. From what he could see, the sniper had changed his place every time, including now. And it wasn't making things any easier on Cage. He kept his sights on the one place this time, holding his breath so that way he could focus clearly.

Sweat trickled down his neck, and his heart beat was starting to really pick up. He didn't know where the sniper would appear next, and if he didn't get this shot right, the ghillie suited sniper would know where he was for sure. He held his breath and waited, his eyes dead focused on a small space in the tress, finger on the trigger. But right at the last second, a speck of movement in the trees caught his attention. Cage turned his scope as fast as he could, to find a barrel aimed right at him, sticking out of the trees. It was now or never, and against all odds, Cage pulled the trigger, flinching at the furious recoil. He didn't know if it was him, or the enemy that fired first at that exact second. And a moment later, his vital scanner read: Target eliminated.

Cage breathed a sigh of relief and fell against the boulder beside him to rest, as cheers and whoops of joy erupted from his other team members, even Kaplan, who was still wounded at the time. I came from behind Cage and gave him a pat on the back, before giving him a man hug briefly. "You got him man, you got him!" Rico was saying excitedly. But as we crowded around and congratulated Cage, the old man still looked wary.

"Don't let your guard down yet boys, the war's not over yet!" He warned us, while gazing ahead at the minefield. He then let his machine gun rest on his shoulder, and walked over to me, just as I had returned to Kaplan.

He lie propped against the tree, and I still wasn't done treating him- or at least, doing what I could for him, sense Kaplan was supposed to be the doctor. I may have said that Kaplan's only an engineer, but I lied. He's actually an ace of all trades, otherwise, he knows a lot more than just that, basic medical training being one of those things.

"Alright Michaels, how is Kaplan responding to treatment? Is he still fit for duty?" Franco asked, giving his wounded shoulder a glance. I nodded slightly. Again, I was no medical officer, so I believed that Kaplan would probably be better off giving the real report himself, but I did it anyway.

"It doesn't seem as bad as I thought sir, the bullet only seems to have punctured the first layer of skin, and just barely made it through the second layer as far as I can tell. I think the armor may have stopped the bullets impact," I added looking to Kaplan for guidance, and he nodded in approval.

"That about sums it up," Kaplan confirmed, wincing in pain when he tried to move his hurt shoulder. "It hurts like crap, but at least we got the bullet out," he said with another pained wince.

The old man nodded. "Do you think you can at least handle a pistol?" He asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

He obviously knew right away that with a hurt shoulder, there was no way Kaplan would be carrying a rifle around in his condition, but that made the situation tougher when you only had 5 guys armed with rifles, not 6.

Kaplan nodded and attempted to sit up from the ground. "I think I could probably manage one of those."

D'chan grabbed his arm and helped make sure he could stand properly. With a painful grunt, Kaplan once again stood on the ground. He grasped his fully automatic pistol and withdrew it from his side.

D'chan put a hand on his shoulder that wasn't already shot. "Are you good?" He asked.

Kaplan nodded, and I replaced his shoulder plate as carefully as I could onto the rest of his armor. A high pitched whirring sounded, as the shoulder plate reattached to the rest of his structure, signaling that it was now ready to go. Kaplan winched again as I let go of his armor, but he didn't complain.

The old man walked up to Kaplan and the rest of us, his machine gun propped on his shoulder. Rico took a glance off to the side at the minefield out in front of us meanwhile. "Yo boss, shouldn't we destroy this minefield so that way we don't accidentally blow ourselves to crap?" He asked out loud.

Franco shook his head in response. "That's a negative soldier," he said, "we could make a much better use out of these mines if we were to disarm them first." His helmet visor gave Kaplan a glance. "Are you able to disarm these mines science boy?" He asked seriously.

Kaplan knelt down cautiously in front of the long, grassy field and examined one of the mines sitting below his feet. He cocked his helmet to the side, and scratched the top of it as if he were thinking about something. Another few minutes passed before he turned back around to face us. "Yeah, if I had a little help I could probably disarm these, and then we could re-arm them for our own purposes," Kaplan explained.

Cage chuckled and punched his hands together. "Time to make something go boom."

Kaplan ignored him. "So who's gonna help me with the mines?" Obviously, Cage and Rico didn't volunteer, but just as I was about to save their skins, D'chan raised his hand first. "I will aid you," he insisted, jogging over to the edge of the field.

While the two were fidgeting cautiously with one of the explosive devices, the rest of us waited patiently on the side and scanned the area around us, making sure that it was clear of any unwanted visitors. A moment later, the old man walked toward us, back to back with me now, and tapped my shoulder lightly without looking back.

"Hey Michaels," he whispered. I took a brief glance in his direction before turning my sights back on the area in front of my weapon. "Yeah boss?" I asked quietly.

"I need you and Cage to check the perimeter around here. We can't have any more snipers or ambushes like that hitting us on every corner, so can I trust you two with the job?" he asked, pointing towards the hilly areas that we hadn't checked yet.

I nodded. "Sir yes sir, and I'll try to see if I can get a good vantage point of where we're at while I'm at it," I whispered.

The old man nodded back and gestured to Cage with his shoulder towards me. Cage gave him a gesture of confirmation and made his way to my position, where we started around the long, grassy field together. We were able to run, sense our trusty HUD's would tell us if we ran into any unfriendly traps along the way. I ran ahead, Cage keeping up with me from behind, as we cautiously approached the top of a hill above us. We halted our progress to a smoother jog, and readied our weapons sights at the top of the hill, as we approached it quietly. As we reached the top of the hill, I could hear the slight sound of Korean voices.

Cage and I exchanged glances, and I lowered by hand to the ground. We ducked onto the ground, and activated cloak mode on our wrist bracers, right as the barrels of AK-47's appeared over the horizon of the hill. Frantic Korean voices sounded, followed by another deeper voice, which responded, almost in an alarming tone. I knew right away that they had lost contact with the sniper that had had been shot, and I wasn't going to sit around to see if they would find our guys.

Cage took slowly fingered his combat knife attached to his ankle, and gave me a small nod. He counted down from three with his fingers, and the minute he held a fist, we made our move on them.

I lunged upward from the grass at the exact moment as Cage did, and tackled one of the three Korean's that I had saw, right off the hill. I only managed to catch a glimpse of Cage tackling the remaining two onto the ground, before I rolled down the hill with the struggling Korean. His main weapon flew into the air down the hill, and as we reached the bottom of hill, I managed to stay on top of the Korean, and slit his throat with my knife. He gurgled on his own blood for a few seconds, but I covered his mouth to keep him from making noise, just in case there were any other guys around. I looked around me swiftly, but my HUD detected no enemies, nor did I catch sight of any in my line of sight.

I jogged back up the hill, to find the two Koreans, lying on the ground unmoving, no surprise there, and Cage intact, with his bloody combat knife in hand. He let out a heavy breath of relief and gave me thumbs up, and I replied with the same gesture back at him. We then cleaned our blood soaked knives, before continuing down the hill to finish our perimeter check. The two of us passed by the Korean that I had killed, who still lie face down in the long grass, and by a few stray trees. More trees stretched down the hill, followed by a few more small patches of berry bushes down the path.

I soon saw the unmistakable beam of headlights near the road, and I knew at once that it must've been there vehicle. I nudged Cage's shoulder, and he nodded in confirmation that he saw it. The two of us then edged around the crowd of bushes, where we found an abandoned, military grade Hum V. Its doors were all opened, and all that remained at the vehicle was one main in the Passenger front seat. I gestured to the guy in the front cautiously.

"You want to take him?" I asked, except Cage was already on it.

After he had dispatched the lone soldier, I checked around the Hum V's back seat for supplies. The one thing that I could find there was a black duffel bag, which contained nothing more than a map of the Island, a few spare water canteens, and a few pistol ammo clips, which didn't even fit my pistol kind, so I tossed the clips aside and took the map instead.

Cage rolled the Korean's body under the truck and walked back around to find me scanning the map. He touched my shoulder with his hand and took a glance at the map I was holding.

From what I could see, the map had been roughly sketched, but it did look pretty detailed. Around the borders of the map were a dark substance, which from my understanding was water, and a few ship symbols near the coastline represented docking ports for ships, near the west and east parts of the coast. We found this really long road, which stretched to one port, and as we traced where it went, we found that it lead straight to the Oil Factory itself, which had been circled with a dark red pen. The road that we had been tracing had been highlighted red once more, so I figured that it must be the road that we were both on at this moment. The road had simply been titled: Main Road/ Supply Route.

After we were finished scanning the map, Cage and I both exchanged wary glances, and I had to high five him in satisfaction. I hadn't thought so before, but we'd just hit the jackpot. The map had showed a clear route that led straight to the Oil Factory, and now we had transportation, that would hopefully get us as far as the entrance to it, without drawing suspicion to the guards.

I gave a gesture to Cage. "Come on, let's go get the rest of the team."

But he stood where he was and shook his head. "Nah, you go ahead Sammy boy. I'm going to check up ahead on the road and see if there are any other special surprises waiting for us near the Refinery," he insisted, "You can go on without me, but tell the boss that I'm busy. I'll keep in contact with our comlinks."

"Alright then, good luck," I said with a nod before I took back off towards our squad.

It took me a little longer than usual to get back because we'd gone deep through the brambles to get to the road, but I eventually managed to find my way back up to the long grassed hill that we'd encountered those two Koreans at.

But as I nearly reached the top, I then heard a loud bang erupt across the earth in front of me, followed by the multiple strings of rifle rounds being shot off. I then quickened by pace up to the top of the hill, to find a few more Koreans lying face down in the dirt, looking as if they'd been trying to get down the hill. And as I made my way down through the lone grass, the gunfire became louder, and I saw the rest of Code Red, taking cover behind boulders and logs, as incoming machine gun rounds hit the back of a boulder. I hid behind a knocked over tree that had fallen and scanned the area around them, taking in every inch of the firefight.

There were Korean troops right across the stream from them, that were approaching their position, only to be gunned down by one of his squad members, and two mounted machine gunners on Hum V's pinning the, in place. Armored, bullet proof plates surrounded the enormous machine gun barrels that were mounted, which meant that a forward attack wouldn't work that well with them, and I knew the team knew that too.

I then saw a small group of Korean Grenadiers, straight down from me, who clearly hadn't saw me, and were pinning the team's right flank. I then quickly lied my back against cover and readied my M4, taking a deep breath, before I shot out of cover. I crouched down stealthily in the long grass, silently praying that the sleek black color of my armor wouldn't draw any attention to me. I then quickly ducked behind another log and took a peek from the long grass, to find them only about 10 feet away from me, and they still hadn't noticed me yet. They shouted something in Korean back and forth to each other, before one nodded and took turns firing and taking cover simultaneously, just as another copied this same cooperative action.

wAs soon as they were distracted by my Squad's fire, I sat up from my cover, my Assault rifle readied on my group of opponents, and pulled the trigger. I didn't know how many times I had hit each of them. All I knew was that a trigger happy spray of an entire M4 magazine across the Korean's hiding spot had completely obliterated them. In just a few seconds, all five of the surprised Grenadiers were lying completely still in the long grass, full of bullet holes along their backs and chests from what I could see. I let out my shaky breath in relief, but at the same time, in shock at the grisly scene I had just created.

I almost had forgotten how dangerous war was, and how ugly it actually came to be at times. And despite the fact that I had committed this exact dead many times before, I still found it hard to believe that I had. To think that in just a few seconds that a few men could lose their lives that easily was a chilling thought. But I shook it off, and continued my mission. After all, what else could you really do when you were a Marine?

I ran up beside what used to be the Korean's cover and took a glance at the machine gunners on the ridge, right as a missile flew directly into the front of one of the Hum Vs, sending it tumbling over the ridge that overlooked our position. The Hum V that had been hit immediately exploded in mid-air as it fell, sending the machine gunner's fiery corpse into the air as well, as the wrecked vehicle slammed into the stream, where another smaller explosion erupted from its front, sending vehicle parts into the air at random. I then reloaded my new clip into my rifle and tossed out the old one.

"Code Red, don't shoot, it's me guys, I'm coming out!" I shouted over the raging gunfire.

"Come on over, I'll cover you kid!" Rico shouted, his voice being drowned by another spray of machine gun fire.

After I had cocked back the trigger, I ran as fast as I could over to them, and shot an incoming Grenadier, sending him into the stream, as I took much needed cover beside D'chan. The old man looked over in my direction, and shouted over the raging gunfire, "Where's Cage!?"

I took a glance back at the gunner before taking cover again, and looked back at the old man. "He couldn't join the party right now; he's busy at the moment!" I told him.

The Colonel face palmed his helmet, before turning his full attention to the whole team. "We need another Wrist Rocket to take out that Armored Hum V!" He shouted to Kaplan.

Kaplan pushed his back against the boulder and glanced his visor in his direction. "Sorry boss, I'm all out from taking out those RTB's!" he said gravely, before ducking at an incoming machine round, and returning fire.

Colonel Franco simply nodded and turned to D'chan.

"Dang it….. D'chan, yah think you can get close enough to that Hum V to take it out?" Franco asked aloud.

D'chan stole a look at the gunner once again, then back at him. "If I can get close enough to the cliff below it using speed mode, I could probably use the Cliff jumper to chuck a sticky at it!" He explained and nodded.

"Alright men, give him some cover when he goes!" Franco yelled. Everyone reloaded their clips and readied themselves again, and D'chan took a small, glowing red, spiky grenade in once hand from his pocket. The outlines of D'chan's armor then shined brightly after he activated something on his armor. He then brought his hand down and took off. "NOW!"

At that exact moment, the remaining four of us all unloaded on the machine gunner together, who did just as we wanted, and ducked at the fire attempt from us. D'chan raced like lightning around and between objects in his path. He sprinted ahead madly, and leapt over a Korean's shoulder, knifing him in the chest once, then across the neck behind him in a flash of a second. D'chan then ducked right under a Koreans attempt at smacking him with his gun from behind, and he knifed the Korean viciously across the neck, then straight into the heart, before kicking him against a rock, doing all of this in only a few seconds. D'chan leaped over a log in his path as a sniper attempted to shoot him, where the bullet whizzed passed his legs harmlessly, and in a split second, D'chan had switched to a pistol and shot the sniper straight through the skull with one bullet, killing him instantly. D'chan ran ahead once more, as the Machine Gunner on the ridge tried to re-target on him, only to re-target too late. The minute he had manged to make it under the Hum V, D'chan switched to another mode on his wrist bracer, where the outlines of his armor shined a bright shade of red. A moment later, a shocked machine gunner watched with fear, as D'chan leapt hundreds of feet into the air, dodging a wave of machine gun bullets, as the swift Marine shot the driver with a pistol. And right as he was over the Hum V, D'chan chucked the sticky grenade right in front of the Machine Gunner's eyes.

Right before he could even open his mouth to scream, the sticky grenade erupted in a rumbling shockwave, as a fantastic display of lights appeared from where the Hum V once was. It tumbled to the ground like a fiery asteroid, where the vehicle split into two scorched halves, and slammed into the ground, right as D'chan landed on his feet at the top of the ridge. I was stunned at the scene, simply stunned, shocked, no other words to describe it, and so was the rest of the team. A moment later, we whooped with joy briefly, before getting serious again.

"Take that you stupid North Koreans!" Cage shouted.

"How does it feel being on the other side of the barrel now, huh? Rico said with a menacing laugh.

D'chan leaped down from the cliff, safely landing on his feet, before the red outlines in his armor started to faint away back to a normal blue color. He regrouped with the rest of our squad where we then stood at the edge of the stream, watching D'chan's pile of steamy handy work float away from us, along with a few charred Korean corpses in the water. I lowered my weapon casually, and so did a few of the other guys, and we watched the rest of the burning wreckage float away into the unknown. Before any of us could say anything during this moment, our coms started to buzz in our ear.

The old man put his hand to his ear and answered, already knowing who it was. "Cage, is that you?" he asked calmly.

"Yeah boss, I'm here, don't worry about that," he replied.

Even though he sounded calm, I knew that Cage was worried about something. Something in the tone in his voice just seemed to give it away. It's like you always knew when a guy like Cage had something concerning to say, like he's giving off some kind of vibe in his voice that tells you that. I guess it's just that I'm used to Cage being deep and firm when he talks, instead of calm like he was talking now.

"Good. Have you located a route to the Refinery sense then?" Franco asked.

"Yeah, I have," Cage replied, "But I need you guys here A.S.A.P….. there's something your gonna want to see…." His voice drew out in the distance, as if someone or something was watching him.

"What do yah got Lucas?" He asked again.

"Just get over his boss, you gotta see it for yourself, you wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said in a whisper.

The old man sighed with protest, before replying. "Alright, just hold tight at your position Cage, we will make it to you shortly."

"Alright, but get over here quietly old man, and fast," Cage said before he switched off the comlink.

Franco then sighed and switched off his, before picking up his shotgun that lie propped against a boulder beside him. "Okay boys, let's move. Cage needs a hand, and you've had a few seconds to rest, now let's go!" He urged us, as he made his way off the small wooden ramp.

Kaplan was the last remaining on the ramp as D'chan and the rest of the team followed the boss. The flickering of the fire reflected off of his visor, as Kaplan continued to stare at it, his expression unreadable beneath his helmet. I put a hand on his shoulder for comfort, and gave him a nudge.

"Come on Kaps, we got a Refinery to destroy," I told him, before I started towards the rest of the team.

* * *

><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed! (Theme song is at the following named Youtube clip: "<em>Halo 1 soundtrack- Halo theme Original," and it's used for the part where Michaels encounters the team in a firefight. <em>and you may want to start the video at about 30 seconds into it, to get to the part where it actually sounds like battle-like music, and maybe keep it at part where it's not battle-like at the end of the music, and use it for the bit after the battle.)**

**Chapter 6 preview: The Team encounters yet another obstacle of getting into the Refinery, where they come up with a daring plan to overcome it... which comes with mixed end results.**


	6. The Blockade

I acknowledged Michaels' response a moment later, after taking my eyes off the flaming wreckage, but I couldn't shake the feeling about what'd I'd be looking at for those few moments.

Being the supposed, "nerd" of the team and all, it might seem pretty logical and quite obvious that I'd react to violence that way. But there were times where- like Sam, I realized just how brutal and vicious war really was. However, I should have expected what I'd be getting myself into, the moment I accepted Code Red's invitation. I was flattered really, considering I hadn't even _had, _any military experience whatsoever, yet they still wanted me to join a high tech military team! And to honest, I also felt quite anxious, due to the fact that I had studied and learned about what war was like in my past studies, and I wasn't thrilled with the thought of actual participation in it. However, in the end- after taking much consideration and thought, I had decided to join. In the end, I had managed to somehow fit in, surprisingly, after countless times of struggle. And after a few years, I found myself actually basking in the joy of being around my other fellow team members, and I liked it too. They watched my back, kept me safe, and in return, I did the same for all 6 of us countless times. Despite it being war every second of the day that I live and work in this team, this is where I believe I belong. Besides, whatever would these guys ever do without someone as smart as me around?

The team and I made our way around through the brambles blocking our way, and up the hill that Michaels had come up before. We then jogged down the small hill after scanning the area for trouble, and reached a line of more bramble bushes in our way. After we had made our way around them, that was when I saw the Hum V that Sam had mentioned before. The commander lowered his weapon, and so did the rest of us, sense we were technically in a safe zone at the moment. The only problem with the supposed safe zone? No sign of Cage.

Michaels checked the back seat and the front, and so did the old man, while the rest of us stood guard. "He's not here!" Michaels said aloud. Colonel Franco meet us around front and the scanned the area again. "Where'd you say Cage was running off to do again?" He asked Michaels curiously.

Michaels' head seemed to cock to the side as if he was puzzled, but then he straightened himself again in alarm, and took a step towards the front of the road. "He said he'd be going up the road to see if there was any trouble on the path to the Refinery," Michaels replied.

He then took a rolled up paper of some kind out from his utility belt and unrolled it, where I then realized that it was a map. A map, of the Refinery we'd been looking for. The old man looked up ahead towards the road the led to the Oil Factory, then back at the map. "He just may have found some trouble then," he muttered scarcely, before stepping on to the road as well.

He waved us forward, and we all followed in behind him as our squad moved up the road swiftly. D'chan watched from behind, just in case any vehicles snuck up on us, while we hugged the edge of the rocky wall next to us. As we ran our way silently around the rocks, it started to take a curvy turn, where the old man made us slow our pace to a cautious fast walk. Suddenly, a small rustle from behind us made us, immediately turn our weapons in the direction the noise had come from, only to find the glimmer of cloak mode in front of us. I could tell, despite that there had been no precipitation like last time, because of the faint, blue electric glimmer that it gave off whenever the user moved inside the armor. After all, I had worked with the suits countless times before, so for me, I could probably point out someone in cloak mode even if they weren't moving.

Cage reappeared a moment later with his right hand in the air. "It's me guys!" he whispered frantically. We lowered our weapons in relief at the sight of him, and let him jog over to us. "You might not want to go out there," he advised us, sounding nearly out of breath, "too much activity out there man."

Colonel Franco got near the edge of the curve and took a small peak up the road, before glancing back at him. "Too much activity? Son, I think your visor is jacked up again, cause I ain't seeing no activity out there, whatsoever!" He insisted.

But Cage shook his helmet in protest. "No Boss, not there! It's further up the road!" Cage told him with a face palm. "Those helicopters and Foot soldiers we saw down there weren't even the start of the amount of men they had there!"

"What kind of resistance exactly, are we talking about here Cage?" The old man asked with another glance at the road up ahead.

Cage waved us towards him and gazed down at his wrist bracer. "Come and see for yourself, you're not gonna believe it."

We all gathered around, and the old man put Rico in charge of keeping a lookout for trouble, while we waited on Cage. He popped something up on his Wrist bracer, and dragged a few screens out of the way, before the words: _Satellite Uplink, _and a search bar appeared on the screen next to it.

"While you guys were trying to get over here, I had been camping up there," Cage said, pointing up to the cliff edge above us, before continuing. "I still couldn't get the best view of the street, so I got the boys back at HQ to get me a satellite update of my position, and a couple thousand meters around it."

Cage then typed in something and clicked, _search, _where a digital 3D map of the surrounding area around Cage's position appeared. "And this is what I found," Cage told us.

At first, it was hard to see, and it looked like nothing except Cage's location on the map. But as he changed the angle, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A few two hundred meters down the road from our current location, I saw vehicles. Not one simple battalion of them, not two, not three, not even four, but _hundreds. _They all formed one massive ring around the main road and paths leading to the Refinery, which was still another couple two thousand meters down the road.

The team looked absolutely stunned at the sight, and even I, the supreme genius of Code Red, was just as surprised.

The old man took a brief glance in my direction. "What does it look we're up against Kaplan?" He asked me gravely, as if already knowing the answer, which he probably did.

All I knew overall, was that the odds were completely against us. We may be a high tech military team, but there is absolutely _no way, _that we'd make it ten feet without getting lit up by those machine guns, not even with ten times our manpower alone would we stand a chance against that kind of blockade and that mass of a fighting force.

"A couple hundred RTB heavy infantry fighting vehicles, along with another handful of Hum V's with mounted machine guns and rocket launchers blocking the road and along the perimeter of the Refinery. At the current rate of manpower and weaponry they contain, I calculate our approximate odds or success is roughly impossible, with our current weaponry we contain," I finished, also not pleased with the thought of going up against them.

"Well, couldn't we just call in a squadron of Eurofighters or Stealth Bombers to clear a path for us?" Rico asked impatiently, but frantically, clearing also wanting a solution to this problem.

But I shook my head in protest, not impressed with his idea. Clearly, Rico and Cage, not to mention probably the whole team, excluding Franco, lacked the battlefield knowledge and tactics to actually develop a proper plan! Did they not know what, "covert operation" meant? Clearly, they didn't at this point.

"That would eliminate the meaning of our covert operation, and take away the element of surprise," I argued calmly.

Rico scoffed and shook his helmet in disbelief, muttering something that I managed to catch, "Dang nerd."

I rolled my eyes. _At least I actually know how to calculate a battle plan properly, and don't slack off when a commanding officer is giving orders! Amateurs….._

But just like I expected, the old man jumped to my defense. "He's right Rico," he admitted firmly, "if we were to call in any type of air support, let alone, any kind of support or supplies, think of what the consequences would be in the end! We cannot risk the Koreans knowing that we are here, unless we reach the factory at the very least," he explained.

"So how are we going to get through that blockade?" Cage asked impatiently, tossing his arms in the air.

We all sat there for a moment and thought about our approach, and so did I.

I knew for a fact that we wouldn't get anywhere close to getting through that blockade if we attempted to use anything else, even those land and vehicle mines that we picked up along the long grass. Those mines wouldn't even put a single dent in that RTB armor, even if our life depended on it! The very best it would do is take out the Hum V's, but there were at least three or four RTB's guarding each possible path and entrance around the perimeter of the ring, even around unlikely and obsolete entrances like mountains! I had to say, the creation of such a militaristic structure was fascinating, not to mention astonishing. How much oil did it possibly take them to create all those hundreds, maybe even thousands of vehicles? Quite a lot I imagine, that and the manpower to keep the vehicles manned Twenty four-seven.

But then, an idea popped into my head. It was far from my best strategy, and the odds of its success were not one hundred percent, but at this point, it was the best I could come up with.

"Guys, I think I know how we are going to get by the blockade," I said with a mystical smile. Every head of the team turned in my direction in surprise, and so did the Boss'. Turning to the old man, I added, "But first, we're going to need to call in a few things to help us before we can take them out."

Franco nodded uncertainly, but confidently enough. I knew he wouldn't doubt my strategic genius, even if the plan sounded crazy. "What'd you have in mind exactly? You just pointed out we can't use no airstrike to get rid of that blockade-"

"It's not air support boss," I interrupted him, glancing at the rest of the team. "We're going to take a little ride," I said with a grin.

* * *

><p>The Korean soldiers shuffled around there posts simultaneously. A few stood guard in the watch towers, manning heavy machine guns, while others kept the blockade along the perimeter of the trees clear and along the road. A few RTB vehicles and Hum V's were scattered along the line blocking the tree line and the road entrance, and even more helping block the road. Everything seemed quiet for the most part….. to quiet it seemed, to the Koreans.<p>

One exchanged words with his partner in the window stand of a tower, as they drank their questionably made cups of coffee, and he simply laughed in reply and retorted something back at his friend in a playful manner. His partner finished his cup of coffee and tossed the cup out of the window into the trees, not caring enough to toss it into the garbage can sitting right next to him, and checked his walkie attached to his utility belt. He asked something quietly into the radio, but no one answered in reply. He tried again, but still, no answer came from the patrol on the road.

Suddenly, a loud bang erupted, shattering the silence around him, and his partner that he'd just shared a cup of coffee with two minutes ago, fell from the top of the tower onto the concrete stairs leading to his tower, dead. He widened his eyes with surprise, dropped his walkie, and took out his assault rifle.

As he attempted to warn his fellow Koreans, the message never reached them, as a second bullet penetrated his head, knocking him to the ground, and plunging him into the same fate as his friend.

* * *

><p>"Target down, you are in the green, go go go!" Cage shouted after the second loud crack of a Barret broke the silence.<p>

My hands moved forward on the handle bars, and the engine of my Nano bike rumbled and growled furiously, as I shot forward through the trees. I maneuvered past a few logs and dodged countless small or large trees and bushes in my way, also barley managing to dodge a boulder in my path. I turned at the last second and stepped hard on the high tech pedals, tightening the gears as I roared up a hill right above me.

I crisscrossed over D'chan and Kaplan's bikes, and before I knew it, I was flying through the air with all four of my squad members. The world all seemed to be moving so slowly, as we shot through the air, right over unsuspecting Korean soldiers, who barely had time to react towards our presence, right as we all drew MP5's from our sides. We blasted away at them with ours Sub machine guns, knocking down the five Koreans that were in the forest patrol in seconds, right as we had hit the ground. Right as we had done this, we changed directions and whizzed into the forest once more together. Me and Kaplan crisscrossed again, right as we made another leap, which confused the watch towers on where we were, and they continued to miss us numerous times, much to my amusement.

I zoomed to the side and braked at the last second, right as RTB bullets started to pound the ground in front of my feet, sending showers of dirt up from the ground and over my head. I pushed hard on the pedals and zoomed myself backwards to gain a better and safer position away from the vehicles, but didn't try to engage.

I just saw Kaplan whiz the opposite direction from me and rocket one of the watch towers, making the top of it immediately explode into a cloud of fiery napalm, as the gunner's scorched corpse flew off into the air, and onto the ground.

Right as he had done this, the next step of our plan finally took place. A sharp whistle of a grenade round pierced the wind, and a moment later, one of the RTBs was history.

D'chan roared off one of the cliffs above the towers just then, and rode along the bridge connecting the cement roofs of the two remaining towers, blowing up another RTB with his wrist rocket, sending a few other nearby Koreans into the air on impact of the blast. D'chan stomped on the brakes of his bike and pointed his SMG at the Koreans below him that were focused on us, and obliterated them before they could react, plugging them full of bullet holes that sent up smoke as they came in contact with the Korean's clothing. He then started his Nano Bike back up and roared along the cement roof some more.

But one of the last remaining RTBs caught sight of D'chan, and turned its enormous gun barrel on him. D'chan burst across the roof as the RTB opened fire on him, along with a few other Korean soldiers and heavily armed Hum Vs. He zoomed off of the roof right at the last second, to find himself on the ground again, and riding alongside a rocky hill. D'chan activated something on his handles, which caused his wheels to become more firmly attached to the ground, and he started to move closer to rocky wall next to him. A moment later, the gunners of the Hum Vs watched in awe as D'chan's motor bike rode along the wall, while keeping firmly attached to it, despite the rocky surface of it. He zoomed along the rocky wall, while unloading on the Koreans below him, sending them onto the ground with a spray of machine gun bullets, while the remaining ones struggled to return fire from cover.

After we had dealt with the small resistance around the perimeter, that was when I had caught sight of D'chan, and decided to join the party myself. Rico, Kaplan, the old man, and myself all charged in at the remaining resistance, which once again, foolishly fell for D'chan's distraction. I ejected my wrist rocket from the top of my arm, and right as I had whizzed behind the RTB, I let the fireworks fly. The heavy vehicle became another inflamed wreck in seconds, just like the others had. Now, with that obstacle out of the way, I zoomed behind the remaining Hum Vs and readied my two MP5s at the back of the gunners' heads, grinning. "Hey idiots!" I shouted boldly.

Right then and there, the Korean gunners turned their heads in surprise, to see me just in time, but not their guns. I sprayed all across the top of the vehicles, putting bullets holes all across the gunners and into the mechanical structure of the vehicle around them. They fell back with startled yelps of pain, and so did other stray Koreans that had attempted to abandoned the Hum Vs. One more tried to shoot me from behind the Hum V, but I leaned to the right and quickly mowed him with the last of my clips, sending him onto his back without another sound. I scanned around some more, and the perimeter around me to make sure we were clear, only to find the ground littered with burning wreckage of the vehicles that we'd destroyed, and Korean corpses filled with bullet holes, or just plain out scorched to the bone.

I stepped off my bike silently and cautiously and scanned the area around the Hum Vs once more, just to be sure that none of them were moving anymore. I reloaded my clip once I was sure it was safe and tossed the dry clip onto the ground beside me. After a few occasional sprays of gunfire from the rest of my team, I was sure that we'd taken care of the outpost.

My com beeped a second later. "Hey!" It was the old man's voice. "Is everyone okay? Does anyone see any more resistance in our way?"

Rico's voice then came into play. "Nope, nothing here in the forest except dead Koreans." Followed by Kaplan's. "All clear boss!"

I switched my com on, still cautiously checking the area around me. "This is Michaels here, I'm good boss," I confirmed, as D'chan rode to a stop next to me.

"Alright, how bout you Lucas? You see any stragglers out there son?" The Colonel asked firmly.

Silence meant for a few seconds, before his voice came back. "Nothing to see here, you're clear for a little, but it won't be long before the other outpost find out something's not right!" He warned.

"Okay then, looks like we'd better start moving then," the old man replied seriously. "Cage and I will meet you ladies down at the front of the post, just sit tight, and make sure we're clear!"

D'chan and I waited patiently for the rest of the team to arrive. Rico and Kaplan arrived a few minutes later, before Cage and the Old man had made it to our location. Surprising as it may have seemed, Kaplan was already able to man a Nano bike, even with his wounded shoulder. I guess even though the kid may have been a geek, it didn't mean he wasn't a tough geek did it?

"Good work men!" Franco praised us with a nod of his helmet, gazing around at the scene around us warily. "Very good work indeed," he said more quietly.

Just then, he glanced back at all of us, his shotgun propped on his shoulder like a fishing pole.

"Alright men, we'd better start moving quick. The Refinery is a few miles north of here, and we need to move fast enough to avoid the rest of the perimeters attention. This ain't gonna be no cake walk, let me tell you now, but I know that we can get through this. We have done jobs like this plenty of times, and if we can do jobs worse than this twenty times over, then I know I can count on us to take out that factory. Let's go boys! We're moving out!" He shouted firmly, with a wave of his hand.

The rest of us climbed onto our bikes, and started them up. We loaded our weapons and checked our supplies and ammo, even our suits themselves to make sure that they weren't heavily damaged.

All of us knew what came next up: The destruction of the Oil Refinery.

* * *

><p><strong>Be sure to share your thoughts and review! Hope you enjoyed, and please no flames! <strong>

**Note: I am not putting a preview for the next two chapters because I believe you already know what to expect for those two. :-) **


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